Last week Twitter officially launched Vine, a video sharing app much like Instagram, but with 6 second video clips instead of stills. I hopped on the bandwagon over the weekend and have found a new favorite creative medium!

If you've heard anything about Vine, it's probably about some of the hiccups it's experienced. Just like any social media, you do need to be careful about guarding your eyes, and Twitter has been working like crazy to clean things up.

In the long run, I think this is going to be an awesome tool for bloggers and businesses alike. Here are 10 tips to help get you going:

1. Share your first post with the hashtag #firstpost this is the initiation post--everyone's still getting the hang of 6 second video, and it's fun to see who is joining.

2. Change your name. If you're a blogger make sure your profile name matches your other social media names. Vine automatically used Amy Johnson on my profile when it linked from my Twitter account. Friends were having a hard time finding me, so I changed it to Maker Mama instead.

3. Post something interesting. I've already seen tons of vines with people scribbling hi/good morning, making their coffee, watching their dog and/or kids. Not that you can't ever post clips of these, they're just not going to be as interesting to others as they are to you (unless you're a movie star or come up with some incredibly unique way to share it). And you'll still probably see one or two of these cliched posts on my feed.

4. Think about why you're on there, who's your audience and what they do want to see. Videos for friends and family are going to look a lot different than ones for your small business or blog. Just like any social content, some personal stuff is okay, but you also want to share plenty of videos relevant to your blog/business.

5. Use Vine's hashtags to make your posts more visible--and share your videos right away. On the explore page, Vine has a list of hashtags it automatically takes you to--these are the videos that are more likely to be seen.6. Think about the sound. Yes there's sound. I didn't realize it at first either. It's good at picking up background noise, so make sure you want that in there. Also, consider adding your own little soundtrack (humming is a favorite of mine).

7. Let Vine access your photo library. That way it can auto
save your video to your phone (right now you can't go back and save it).

8. Tap on a video to pause it. This is a quicker way to mute the sound or stop content from playing.

9. Explore less to avoid unwanted content. If you don't want to worry about watching stuff you don't like, stick to following friends rather than perusing through the popular pages. Your friends will automatically show up in your home feed.

10. Share your videos right away. Currently there's no way to go back and share your posts through the app, so if you're hoping to tweet it, do it when you set the post up. This is also the only way you can get a direct link to share elsewhere. (On another note, Facebook isn't allowing direct posts from the Vine app, but you can upload your Vine videos directly from your phone.)

Are you on Vine? I'd love to see what kind of videos you're making! Hope you found my 10 Vine app tips useful. Oh, and one last tip--set your timer so you'll remember to get off--and save your battery!